'borrowing' wasteland to grow on?

[janeyo]

next to our house is a strip of wasteland about 2o feet wide and as long as our plot (about 200 feet). It gets a lot of sun and has a self seeded apple tree, and blackberries on etc.
We strim the bits near the house in the summer to make it look neater as I get sick of people asking if it's ours (no fence between us and it so it does look like our bit).

I really want to use some of it to grow on.

I have no idea who it belongs to, nobody has ever been down to do anything to it and we have been here over a year. The chap who lived here before once put a fence across it and got a letter the next week telling him to take it down so somebody round here knows about it!

I asked land registry but they said it would cost me to get the information.

I might put some black plastic down and leave it for a year. If no-one comes knocking and tells me to move it I might start growing on. it.

What would you do?

[lynda66]

i'd put black plastic down and leave it for a year

[pdblake]

I'd put a fence post in and see who sends me a letter

[bobleponge]

I know there is some law that says if you move your boundaries to claim land and its unchallenged for a period of time (I think 7 years) then it legally becomes yours, or something like that anyway.
I would be a bit loathe to grow stuff on it though, as if it legally isnt your land, then you would have no rights to tell people to stop taking all your hard grown crops.
One possible way though could be to grow blackberry and tayberry bushes along the outer perimeter of the strip of land, thus discouraging anyone from climbing through it, and then you could use the bit without worry of crop rustling??

[Hazel at the Hill]

I'd pay the money (about £5 from memory?) to land registry to find out who it belongs to At least then you can decide whether to offer to buy the strip of land if you want to grow things on it.

Think how you will feel growing all your lovely flowers and veg on the land and then getting chucked off it!

[Hazel at the Hill]

I'd put a fence post in and see who sends me a letter

That'll cost a lot more than the land registry fee!

[janeyo]

It has a hedge on the roadside so noone goes on it, to access it you have to come onto our land. No idea who planted the hedge. Is prob why people think it is ours. The only things that go down it are me to get the blackberries and the deer when they come into my front garden to eat the greens in the flower beds lol.

I believe it was kept by someone as an access strip to woodlands at the back of our house for building on. But permission has never been granted for building.

I don't want to move the boundary at all, just have a little rectangle with veggies on! If I covered it and left it I'd have lost nothign reall, and even if Igot a letter after the veggies grew then I could soon whip em out

The neighbours already think I am bonkers so think most of them wouldn't turn a hair, if I grew on it.

[bobleponge]

Well if the only access is from your land, I would probably be inclined to grow stuff on it

[janeyo]

that's all the encouragement I need

where can I get cheap black plastic?

I will look much betetr cultivated than the mes sit is now, even when we do strim it.

[pdblake]

That'll cost a lot more than the land registry fee!

Doesn't have to be a good post

[lottie dolly]

have you tried the council,rates,planning depts,who is responsible for the boundary line between you and the land,

[Dottie]

Might as well grown some pumpkins or courgettes through the plastic, while your at it. Or put some big pots of veg/strawberries to hold the plastic down, then you can just move them if you get a letter.

[tootles]

If I were to park my car on your driveway, it would still be my car and you would have no rights over it, other to ask me to move it.

Plant your veggies, what have you got to lose?

You could always pay the fee and offer to rent it off the owner. If they are holding on to the land in the hope of getting planning at some point, they are unlikely to want to sell.

Perhaps you should 'drop' some squash seed there this season and see what happens.

[janeyo]

It's so exciting, first I get nanna's garden then I get one nextdoor!

I feel like Sewer Rat today

[SueA]

I'd be tempted to grow something on it as well but you should be careful, someone could come along & accuse you of trespass. It might be worth checking with the Land Registry as Hazel says it doesn't usually cost much, I think we paid about £3.50 a couple of years ago & were able to check it online. You might want to read up about 'Guerilla gardening' too, the people who do that are well up on the legalities etc.
The Guerrilla Gardening Homepage